The Scarlets product lines up alongside Brian O’Driscoll in the centre as one of eight Welshmen in the starting XV selected by head coach Warren Gatland.
Sam Warburton leads the side with Adam Jones and Alun Wyn Jones joining him in the pack. Mike Phillips starts at scrum half while there is an all Welsh back three of Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert and George North.
But with his Wales centre partner Jamie Roberts missing through injury, Davies has been named at inside centre and earlier this week, said: “I don’t mind it, if that’s the case I’ll be more than happy to play 12 for the Lions.
“With the strength we’ve got, we’ve got to make sure we work hard and keep pushing ourselves.
“There is confidence in the squad, we’ve got a good understanding of what we want to do and what we want to achieve. We’ve just got to make sure we keep our eye on the prize now and keep building.”
Injuries to Roberts and Manu Tuilagi have left Gatland without two of his centres for the first Test but after a superb individual performance from Davies in the win over the New South Wales Waratah’s, the Lions head coach won’t be too worried.
On Davies’ performance that day, O’Driscoll said: “He was awesome. He was involved in everything that was good. You have to tip your hat to that. Jonathan was comfortably the best player on the night.
“The great thing is that it makes me, Manu and others in the same position realise that is the level we need to be at.
“You have to embrace that and salute him.”
